First Hike of the Season

Not sure what is going on with our weather this year. We had originally hoped to go hiking in Estes Park on Saturday, but due to the cooler weather and higher chance of rain/snow showers in the mountains, we opted for a trail in the mountains above Boulder.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A and then headed to the mountains. For the first hike of the season, our children were incredibly enthusiastic...wait, I meant to say they were not very happy with us. They whined. Shocker. But we made them hike anyway. Kristen, our youngest, is actually the best hiker of our girls. We find that once we get going, they have fun, they find rocks to climb on, the scavenge for good walking sticks...they don't whine quite so much.

We parked along the winding Flagstaff Road and began to hike up the Flagstaff Mountain Trail. The road switchbacked up the side of the mountain, and we cautiously crossed it a number of times to rejoin our trail, being careful to avoid the speeding bicyclists, I think they were going faster than the vehicles.






My kids have digressed a little from saying "cheese", I think it was "boogers".

Misha's Last Day

Fourth grade has come to an end. It wasn't such a downer for Misha though because Misha's teacher is moving to be a fifth-grade teacher and taking her whole class with her. Mrs. Spong is another wonderful teacher whom Misha has loved. After Kristen's performance at 10:30, we came home for an hour until the school-wide picnic at 11:30. It was iffy as to whether or not the picnic would be outside. We have had some weird weather as school comes to a close. In fact, Kristen wore a long-sleeve shirt to school that morning.

Anyway, we drove back to the school for the picnic, and parked almost as far away as if we had just walked on over. I had blankets and picnic and stuff though that I thought would be easier than carrying from home. Misha found us and we sat down amongst hundreds of others to enjoy our lunch.





Most of the students were being signed out after lunch, but Misha wanted to stay, "I want to spend as much time with Mrs. Spong as I can." I told Mrs. Spong and she seemed touched. "Normally," she said, "I would tell the parents to take their kids with them, but Misha is welcome to stay."

Misha worked all afternoon to move desks, supplies, books, anything and everything that Mrs. Spong needed in her new classroom. When she got home, she looked beat, "Mom, now I know exactly how you feel." "How's that?" I queried. Misha replied, "I spent all afternoon working hard and sweating and all the other kids just goofed around while I worked."

A life lesson I hope she remembers well.

The Last Day of Kinder

Kinder, that's what Kristen's teacher, Mrs. Ryan, liked to call it, and somehow I think it sounds better too. So, yesterday was Kristen's last day (and when you really think about it, mine as well). There was a short performance scheduled with songs and poems the students had learned throughout the year. The kids were excited and animated in their performance. (I'll post pictures once I can download them from my camera).

Since Kristen is a tall girl, she was in the back row. I couldn't see all of the actions she was doing with the song, but she was certainly into it. As a closing to the performance, we watched a slide show of the Kinder year in review. Kristen's teacher sat on the gym floor with her students and cried through it.

We headed back to the class where, still with tears, Mrs. Ryan explained how much she loved teaching and how much she loved our children throughout the year. She really was an excellent teacher. In one of the conferences I attended she said that I needed to write a book on how to raise children so that she could have it when she started having her own children. Very thoughtful teacher.

Kristen was having a hard time holding it together. Her brown eyes were filled with sadness and she tried to smile with quivering lips. She said to me a number of times, "She was the best teacher a little girl could ever have," and "I give her half my heart."

The Things They Say....

So.....this is the first day of summer vacation. I knew there was a reason for the deluge of Kristen comments on my blog; she didn't have any competition while her sisters were in school all day long. Well, things have changed. Sadly, I don't write all of their comments down.

This was the most recent conversation with all three of my girls as they were supposed to be doing the dishes (yeah I make them finish up without me).

Misha to Kristen (yelling): "Put down the paintbrush!!!!!!!"
Amy to Misha (in a calm, somewhat eery, sounding-like-Mom voice): "You don't have to yell."
Misha to Amy (huffily): "I kinda do because apparently it doesn't go through her ears!"

It's only going to get better folks.

Field Day Part II

Finally, we had a morning without rain. It was actually sunny too, giving me a little color after standing outside for an hour and a half. Misha's field day was similar to Kristen's field day, in that the 5th grade class planned and executed the activities. It was not your traditional field day that I knew growing up, we certainly didn't have any events involving a plunger. Kind of makes me sad that some schools have gone so far from the traditional events. They might argue that competition isn't a good thing. YES IT IS! Trying your hardest to accomplish something is a worthwhile achievement.

So we had races involving said plunger and a ball, a tug of war, three-legged race, pizza box stack. The kids had fun.

Front Porch

Chris and I had the chance to sit on our front porch Saturday evening, to enjoy the delightful evening, and to chat while watching the clouds floating by. We don't do that often enough.

She's Getting It

I could have been a 'People of Wal-mart' exhibit last Saturday night. My original bike kind of pooped out, and Chris and I went with Kristen and Misha to Wal-Mart to purchase a new one. Now, I don't need anything fancy schmancy--thus Wal-Mart--just a bike to ride around with my girls. I will say that riding a bike in a store is a first for me (except for maybe when I was in the single digits), but I rode my bike up and down an aisle or two to get a feel for the bike.



After stopping for dinner on the way home, Chris and I then took the two younger girls on a bike ride (Amy was at a birthday party). Kristen was becoming more and more comfortable/brave with her bike all of the time. It was fun to see. So I was riding behind her trying to steer with my left hand, and take pictures with my right. I'm not a very good one-handed, left-handed driver, BUT she's getting it!

Surprising Misha

Every year Misha helps to celebrate a lot of the birthdays as they happen throughout the year for students in her class at school. Misha's birthday is in July so her birthday is always overlooked. You might argue that celebrating a birthday in the summer is way cooler than in a stuffy old classroom. She doesn't complain, mind you, because who wants to complain when you're getting cookies with delectable frosting at school?

With a couple days left in the school year, I sent an email to Misha's teacher asking if she would mind if I brought cookies to celebrate Misha's birthday before school let out. Mrs. Spong is cool; she was all for the idea. I kept it under wraps, because I always love a good surprise. So when I got the go ahead on a time, Kristen and I hurried on over to King Soopers to pick up cookies for Misha and her classmates--chocolate cookies with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I brought a serving platter and napkins. Kristen and I made our way to the red wing at the school, caught Mrs. Spong's attention, and knocked on the door. The kids started turning around, "Misha, it's your Mom." We walked in to the room and before I could start singing "Happy Birthday", Mrs. Spong had Misha come sit up at the front of the class room with her to read the traditional birthday book, "On the Day You Were Born."



Then we sang "Happy Birthday". Misha passed out cookies; no one took a bite until Misha had served everyone and took the first bite herself.



Misha was thrilled. I don't often see her face so red; I think she was a little overcome with all of the attention. I say, "You deserve it sweet girl."

Field Day

It has been hit and miss trying to fit Field Day in with all of the rain we are having. Even though it wasn't particularly warm on Wednesday, Mr. Liddle jumped at the chance to have it. Kristen's was scheduled for the morning and Misha's for the afternoon. I went over to the school to watch for a short time before my Institute class.

Oh the anticipation waiting for her turn.



RUUUUUUUN!





A bad turn of events?



When Kristen and I went back over to the school at 1:30 for Misha's Field Day, the rain drops starting falling just as we pulled out of the garage. They continued as we ran an errand to the library, and by the time we pulled up to the school, the students were filing back inside and parents were leaving. We'll try again on Monday now.

Rain

Kristen has been begging to play in the rain lately. I told her she could if one of her sisters would go out with her. Amy was willing, Misha not so much. The two had fun splashing, running, and jumping in puddles. I stayed in the dry safety of the garage to snap some pictures.

Grounded

Just grounded Kristen for a week. A lot of tears and loud crying ensued. Then, amid the tears, "What does grounded even mean?"

Piano Practicing

To Kristen and Misha this morning, "Who's practicing?" as I listen to them pound a few keys. "I am," Misha replies. "Play real songs," I respond. "That IS my real song." she says. "Well.... all right then."

You're the Best, Mom

So I scored some Mom points tonight. Last week I received an email from Chick-fil-A inviting our family to come take a "Backstage Tour" of our local restaurant. Monday night was our least busy night of the week, so I scheduled our tour for 4:30 pm. We arrived at our appointed time and were met by Ryan who would take us on our tour. He supplied us with no-slip booties and a lanyard identifying us as tour participants.



We saw the ice machine, the lemon juicer (which, by the way, you must be 16 to run), the coolers, the fryers, and the breading area. Luis gave us a demonstration on how to bread the chicken for maximum tastiness. The girls were quite attentive and Amy even ventured to ask a few questions. We got to go up front and check out the drive-thru, area and for the finale, all three girls got to make their own ice cream cones. Perfect. We thanked Ryan for the tour, removed our lovely booties, and the girls happily ate their cones.



As we walked over to Michaels, Kristen happily stated, "You're the best, Mom....... even though you yell at me!"

K-R-I-S-T-E-N

Kristen just walked in to the office to type on the computer. "Mom, how do you spell annoying?" Without missing a beat, I started spelling, "K-r-i" pause so she can type the letters, "s", more pausing, "t-e-n". Her thought process is beginning to kick in as she keeps asking "What?" and I try not to laugh out loud.........."Hey, that spells Kristen." I chuckle, "I know."

The Face

After leaving Macy's and then Charming Charlie, Kristen began to ask (beg) to go to the play area at The Orchard to climb on the toys. I'm not excited to do it. "Please? Don't make me use the face."

(I had her recreate the face at home so that you could get the visual too.)

Macy's

Kristen loves to go to Macy's for their escalator. That's the only reason. So, we usually walk through Macy's to get to where we are going at The Orchard. She usually asks to ride the escalator before we even leave the house!

On Friday, as we were walking up to the store, I turned the tables on her and began, "Can we ride the escalator? Please? Please? Can we? Please can we ride the escalator? It would be so fun." She was looking at me out the side of her eye and obviously thinking, "Who are you and what did you do with my mom?" I kept up my non-stop questions until we walked through the front door and then she said, "Stop talking like me. You're creeping me out. Seriously, you're creeping me out."

Sunflower Farm

Do you remember your first bus ride? Kristen had her "first" last week as her kindergarten class visited Sunflower Farm in Longmont. She was thrilled that I was able to come along as well. I was amazed that there was such a cool treasure so close by that I had never known about before.



We left the school around 9:45 am in two big yellow buses and drove for about 15 minutes to the farm. Once we all finished disembarking next to Osama the Llama, we were given a short spiel on instructions and then left to roam. I was with another mother and two other girls. We had to wait for them most of the time which made Kristen a little impatient. The little girl of the mother we were partnered with was the same little girl a couple of weeks ago who acted so snobbish about the toy she was getting. It was enough to spend the morning with them. I always wondered why Kristen never asked to play with this particular little girl; I understand now. I digress.

Kristen dressed for the occasion in her cowgirl hat and boots with a skirt. She definitely knows how to do it up right.



First stop was the zipline. It was a rather popular attraction. We then headed over to the hay bale climbing area. I was grateful not to have an allergic reaction. They had set up planks connecting piles of hay bales to others. Kristen seemed to have a little squeamishness around heights (much like me), so I held her hand as she walked carefully across. We headed next to the goats. There was corn for the kids to feed the goats, but Kristen just watched.





We wandered around to check out the sand pile, horses, a merry-go-round, tree houses, climbing ropes, swings. Kristen wanted to swing, but so did a lot of other kids. We weren't the only school group there, so it was a bit busy at times. Our group activity was to plant sunflower seeds that each student was able to take home. Kristen is hoping that hers grows to be huge.



Finally, she got to ride the horse swing just as we were ready to leave.

Remotely Contentious

Now, I'm not placing all of the blame on the remote, but I can't count how often the remote control is at the center of arguments in our home. Is it the instigator of the problems? Not sure. But it certainly knows which buttons to push to get my girls going.

Last night for instance, Kristen wanted the remote and apparently had it first. Misha somehow maneuvered it away from Kristen and the arguing ensued. Misha headed off to the bathroom and with a slick hand off to Amy, ensured that the remote would be secure in her absence. How you ask? Amy hid it in the appliance garage in the kitchen. Sneaky. When I looked to Amy for an explanation she replied, "We're very serious about remote privileges around here." Apparently.

Art Show

Misha's art project has been displayed at the mall in the district-wide art show throughout the past week. Last night was the open house and I imagine it generated the most traffic for the week. I try to celebrate all of my kids' accomplishments, so we headed in to Longmont to check out her work. It's called an "insoluble painting". Somehow the kids fill it so that a liquid encases their artwork and results in a project that is fun to touch.

Misha's pointing to the artwork at the top!



And here's a close up.

National Junior Honor Society

Amy was inducted in to the newly-minted National Junior Honor Society chapter at her school last week. Chris caught an early flight home from Seattle and arrived at the school (with tulips in hand) as they were ten names away from reading Amy's name. She was thrilled. She asked me earlier in the day, "Mom, do you think this is my most important day ever?" I am grateful that she really strives to do her best in school.



And she was loving her straight hair. She had about three inches cut off earlier in the week. What she loves most about a hair cut is having straight hair for as many days as she can get away with not washing her hair.

Kristen

I swear, my six-year old is hormonally challenged right now. Her attitude lately has been a little...horrifighting. It's a perfectly acceptable word that Kristen coined and used on me the other day when I told her she would have to go spend some time in her room if she didn't stop being a little pill. With drama, "I can't. My room is horrifighting." There you have it. It IS a word.

Life Lesson

Amy has started making some hair bows to sell that my Mom taught her how to make. When she was left to her own devices to make hair bows for a friend who had bought some, she did a rather shoddy job. Upon showing me, I told her that it was unacceptable for her to sell the hair bows as they were, and that she would have to make some more and use the
samples that Grandma had made with her as her guide. She was quite upset with me and put off completing the order.

I finally said that I would help her in order to help her fulfill her obligation. As we worked together, I then proceeded to tell her about my first sewing experiences with my mom and how they were filled with a lot of unpicking and redoing of seams. She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said, "Good, I thought I was the only one to mess up."
Quality work is one of the many lessons I learned from my mom: Do it right, do it well...and if you don't, do it again. A good lesson for me to pass on.

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Ball came to visit a couple weeks ago. The girls were thrilled to have her come, Kristen especially since she and Grandma share April as their birthday month. We were a little disappointed that the weather didn't cooperate--it was cold all weekend long--but we still found some fun things to do.

Grandma's flight landed just after 6 on Friday night. We planned to go see the Pirate exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, but the last available time to view the exhibit was at 7 pm. We grabbed a quick dinner for us and Grandma on the way to the airport at Chick-fil-A. We ate in the van as we waited for her to land and then she ate as we drove to the museum.

Photography was not allowed in the exhibit, but grandma took a few pictures before and after. I forgot my camera. Boo.







Not being an excellent reader yet, it wasn't quite so fun for Kristen. We read to her and explained what some of the exhibits were. Grandma and the girls finished a lot quicker than Chris and I. It was interesting though. We made a quick stop at McDonalds for treats and then headed home for the night.

Saturday morning, Misha and Kristen were up at their normal early hour. Amy, Grandma and Chris slept in. Misha created her own pirate costume.



I made some delicious pumpkin muffins which seem to be a new favorite now. We had hoped to go up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, but it was quite cold at our house and would have been even colder there. Grandma came with her new toy, an iPad, and like bees to honey, she and Chris were drawn in.



I could tell that Chris and his mom could have sat there all day, but I could also tell that the girls were getting restless. What to do on a cold day? We settled on Laser Tag in Loveland. This was a first for Grandma, and she had as much fun as the rest of us did. My girls dressed for the occasion in their stealth wear. No white unless you want to be lit up like a Christmas tree.



After returning home, the girls and Grandma played Wii while Chris and I made a trip to Costco. Oh, I could spend so much money in that store! I do, but I could spend so much more.

We decided to have dinner at the new Mexican restaurant in town, Hacienda Jalisco. I could eat Mexican any day of the week. My girls, not so much. It was possible that some of them were pouting at the restaurant.

Grandma was here until Monday afternoon when both she and Chris headed to the airport. Before leaving, she got to spend Monday morning with Kristen and Misha at school.